A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh

The last book in the Huxtable series. I've enjoyed revisiting Balogh, even though I haven't loved every book. I enjoyed this series as a whole much better than the Slightly series.

A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh
(2010, Regency Historical) 6/13/2010
Grade: 4

Everyone sees the Duchess of Delacorte as aloof, and gossips about her much older husband and her string of lovers. But Hannah is much different than the gossips know. Now that she is a widow, she is ready to take a lover, and settles on Constantine Huxtable - who also presents a face to the world that is quite different from the inner man.

Back to mild disappointment. This book had a lot of potential. The hero and heroine were fascinating characters, particularly the heroine who was full of contradictions, full of new layers that Constantine pulls back one by one. But the book was spoiled (at least a little bit) by the layers of sugar that Balogh piles on. There are far too many sugary-sweet reunions of the Huxtable family, too many characters who are too-good-to-be-true, and too many people sobbing on each other’s shoulders. A little of this goes a long way, and sometimes it seemed like Balogh wanted to drown us in a wave of treacle. However, the characters kept the story from completely falling apart, and I found the book very readable. Just not quite in keeper territory.

Now that I've spent a few weeks in Regency England, I think I need something completely different. I have a contemporary in my TBR pile about a country singer...

Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh

Huzzah! A Balogh that left me feeling happy, not disappointed.

Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 6/12/2010
Grade: 4.5

Lady Paget is desperate. The ton thinks she’s a scandalous murderer, but she’s destitute and her only option to to find a wealthy man and become his mistress. She chooses “angelic” Stephen Huxtable, the Earl of Merton, and his kindness makes her feel things she thought she could never feel again.

Definitely the best in the series so far. After three stories of perfect heroines, we finally get a heroine who has real problems, and who isn’t the perfect angel. (Since this is a Balogh, of course she’s not really bad, but she definitely has some hard edges, especially compared to the saintly Huxtables.) And Stephen was an interesting hero - his essential niceness forces him into situations that he isn’t quite expecting, and makes him turn his assumptions upside-down. There was real character growth for both of them. The book had nice pacing, other than a slow section in the last part of the book, and it managed to avoid most of the saccharine happy-wives-and-babies family reunions which Balogh loves so much This didn’t quite make it into keeper territory, but it’s the best book Balogh has written since Slightly Dangerous.

Right now, I don't think this is a keeper. But I felt the same way about Slightly Dangerous, and it grew on me, and became a keeper on the second reading. So this one is going on my keeper shelf for the time being, even if it's still on probation.

At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh

I'm enjoying this series, but I wonder if The Cosby Show was as big in Canada as it was here? I can't help associating the name Huxtable with the Coz.

At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 6/8/2010
Grade: 4

At the age of 30, Margaret Huxtable isn’t sure she will ever marry. But an impulsive lie to an old love leads her into the arms of Duncan Pennethorne, the notorious Earl of Sheringford who shocked the ton 5 years earlier by runnng off with a married woman. Duncan is desparate to marry, but is there more to Margaret than convenience?

This book had the opposite problem of the last book in this series - this one started off great but fell apart in the end. Although the plotline of a marriage of convenience was very similar to the previous book, this one came to life in the first part of the story. The characters were interesting and well written, and it was interesting that the story hinged on the opinions of the ton and the hero’s situation as a social pariah who finds his way back. Unfortunately, the book started to get a little dull once the hero and heroine married. There were some nice moments, but for the most part, it was same-old-same-old. But that wasn’t too bad. The book really went off the rails in the last few chapters, when bizarre melodramas appeared out of nowhere. Some of the characters act in strange, out of character ways, and the plot was straight out of Catherine Coulter. The author might have made this very weird plot twist work if she’d spent half the book on it, but having it show up at the last minute, just to give the characters something to do in the last few chapters? It made very little sense and it really spoiled the book for me. This book was heading into keeper territory until this very odd turn of events near the end.

Is it worse to have a book that starts slow but ends well, or a book that is great up until a bad ending? I try to evaluate a book as a whole, but it's hard to love a book that leaves you with a bad impression.

Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh

Another one in the Huxtable series. An interesting dress on the cover - you rarely hear about a heroine wearing a brown dress, unless she's a governess trying to look unattractive. This one definitely doesn't look governess-like. (Not that the heroine actually wears a brown dress in this book, at least not that I remember.)

Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 6/6/2010
Grade: 4

Even though Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, is a notorious rake, Katherine Huxtable finds him dangerously attractive. Their relationship begins with a wager of sex - and then one of love - and ends up with a marriage that neither expected. But will Katherine discover that Jasper has hidden depths, and he’s more worthy of love than she ever expected?

Although this book was better than the last one in this series, it was very slow getting started. The setup was familiar but well done - he’s a dangerous rake, she’s a virtuous lady - but it got very bogged down in the middle of the book. It only really picked up again in the last third, after Katherine and Jasper are married. The characters definitely came alive in the last section of the book, and the story was familiar but interesting - Balogh is the best at creating heroes that are dealing with dysfunctional family backgrounds. I just wished that I hadn’t had to slog through 200 pages of nice-but-dull to get there.

Balogh has had some odd words and phrases in her last few books that seem historically inaccurate. I can't say for sure if they are - did people in the 19th century say that white was the combination of all colors, something that most people don't say now - but the word "sex" feels very anacronystic, even if it's not.